'Soft Money' May Fuel Vote Recount Efforts

WASHINGTON — Can the presidential campaigns use unlimited individual contributions — commonly known as soft money — to pay for a recount if there is one this year?

The Federal Election Commission, which was slated to discuss the question today, never got a chance to decide.

The Senate campaign of Republican George Nethercutt of Washington, which sought the opinion, withdrew it at the last minute. Without a question before it, the FEC cannot vote. That usually means the old rules on the books apply.

Those rules allow campaigns to use unlimited individual contributions but no foreign, corporate or union money to fund a recount.

Since then, however, Congress adopted a campaign finance reform law that bans soft money in connection with a federal election. Neither the FEC nor Congress addressed whether that law applied to recounts.

Commissioner Michael Toner, a Republican, said today he thought it was perfectly clear that the FEC rules, which predate the 2002 campaign finance reform law, would apply this year.

Vice Chairwoman Ellen Weintraub, a Democrat, agreed, though she said she would have voted to change them.

But Commissioner Scott Thomas, a Democrat, disagreed. "A regulation, however well intentioned, cannot trump the statute," he said, advising attorneys for the campaigns to proceed with caution.

Government watchdogs say the issue is straightforward.

"What Congress has made clear and the Supreme Court has upheld is that soft money cannot be used on federal elections," said Larry Noble, executive director of the Center for Responsive Politics. "The only way this can be allowed is if the FEC creates this amazing fiction that recounts have nothing to do with federal elections. It doesn't make common sense."

The FEC has previously said that the presidential candidates are free to use their legal and accounting funds to fund a recount this year. Contributions to those are limited to $2,000.

The Bush campaign had $10.3 million in its account as of Oct. 13; the Kerry campaign had $6.7 million.

In 2000, the Bush campaign created a special account to fund the recount and limited donations to $5,000. It collected $13.8 million. The Gore campaign raised $3.2 million, even though it accepted unlimited individual contributions.